All of the pictures on these pages were taken by Mark Newby
who has kindly agreed to share them with us.
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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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Mark Newby will be well known to many as an ex-funny car and land speed record car pilot. I asked Mark how he got into drag racing in the first place and this is what he told me. On one my rare guest appearances at Haymill County Secondary school near Slough, I had to cycle past a small garage next to the bowling alley on the edge of Slough Trading Estate. Local rumour said that the building next door was occupied by a race car builder called Frank Williams and that the garage itself was owned by a foreign bloke called Jochen Rindt. Whatever the truth was, there were always 'racing cars' on display in the showroom. Every few weeks they'd get changed and I recall on one occasion seeing at least two, possibly three Gulf GT40's in there together. As I cycled past one day, smoking my last Players No 6 before entering the school gates just a few yards away, there was a big fuss on the forecourt. Some gentlemen had arrived with a slingshot dragster on a flatbed trailer, and midway through the unloading process had reached a delicate point in the operation which called for more hands than they alone could muster. Enter stage right an enthralled 14 year old schoolboy. I couldn't believe my eyes. The size of the motor. The size of the slicks. The skinny wire wheels on the front. The shouting and swearing of the unloaders. Their increasingly urgent pleas for my assistance. Sensing the upper hand (it looked like they were about to drop the car and cause damage) a deal was struck in seconds. I would assist them in preventing disaster with the machine, and they would agree that I could sit in it whenever I wanted to, as often as I wanted to and for as long as I wanted to. I was captivated, completely hooked. The car was Dennis Priddle's Hot Wheels-sponsored dragster, and once it was in position the guys presented me to the keeper of the garage and told him about our deal. Every day I sat in that car for as long as it was there. My school headmaster was stunned. What was it that he'd said or done that had multiplied my attendance from one day a week to five all of a sudden? I determined there and then that I'd drive such a car. I just needed to perch behind an engine like the one in the Hot Wheels car and unleash its power. It became all-consuming. I couldn't wait. It is all I lived for from that moment and it kept me going through dark times. From that first sit in the fueller I never missed a drag race meeting at either Blackbushe or Santa Pod (the latter largely thanks to the great kindness shown to me by Pete and Erica Bartlett to whom I owe much). How could I have known that many years later my first voyage down the strip in anything would be in the funny car once debuted by Dennis Priddle in the colours of Olavi Knuutinen? But that is another story. |
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To start this page off in some style we are going back to a time when funny cars roamed the drag strips of Europe in some numbers, before the costs of running one became prohibitive. |
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This fine collection in the picture on the left consists of (from left to right) : One feature of drag racing in almost all classes is the way that cars and bikes changed hands and appeared with different drivers over the years. This was certainly the case with funny cars as we shall see. |
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This picture pre-dates the shots above and shows the cars which really lit the blue touch paper of European funny car racing. |
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Fast forward a few years and we have Stardust about to race Houndog again. However, things have changed rather. |
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Stardusts old and new. |
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A lovely picture of the late, great Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge. |
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We have seen Houndogs 7, 9 and 10 in the pictures above, here is a pit shot of number 9. If you ever had the pleasure of seeing this car close up you will have been impressed by the superb workmanship which was a hallmark of all Nobby's cars. |
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Nobby maxed out in the 1980s with Houndog 11 which featured this super swoopy Corvette bodyshell. |
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After relinquishing Stardust to the Stones' team Bootsie campaigned the ex-Chadderton & Okazaki flopper which, again, was bought by SPR. |
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Mark recalls that the burnt paintwork on Gladiator in the picture above was caused when the engine let go at about three quarter track. Amazingly, this picture was taken the day after! |
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What happened to Gladiator when Bootsie moved on to yet another car? |
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The Force getting a bit sideways with Ronnie 'The Joker' Picardo at the controls. This car was yet another example of recycling, it was originally one of Gene Snow's cars which he brought to the UK, drove and then sold on to SPR. |
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Two shots of Swede Björn Andersson driving at Santa Pod. |
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US star Tom Hoover's Showtime Corvette-bodied flopper. |
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Gene Snow's Plymouth Arrow-bodied Snowman. |
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Clive Mechael's California Kid pictured at Avon Park Raceway. |
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This Olsmobile Cutlass-bodied flopper was driven by John Spuffard car (or the Rt. Hon. Member for Rushden as Mark calls him). Mark thinks that Andy Craddock was the crew chief. |
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I said at the beginning of this funny car feast that this was the golden age of drag racing. Well the funny cars were not limited solely to the nitro-burning variety. |
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Jon Grosland burning out and then getting properly crossed up on the launch. |
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Martin Hopp was a regular visitor to Santa Pod with his immaculate Corvette-bodied flopper. It had various paint schemes over the years, this is one of the more sober versions. |
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The US team of Keeling & Clayton produced a string of beautiful cars all named California Charger. |
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Veteran Swedish competitor Anders Lantz at the controls of his Roach-sponsored car. |
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Dennis Priddle built this immaculate BB/FC for Graham Hawes who called it Black Magic. |
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Björn Ardin was another regular visitor to Santa Pod with his unusual Volvo-bodied funny car. |
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Anders Lian at the wheel (well, butterfly actually) of his Ford Pinto. |
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This might be Jon Grosland's Plymouth Arrow reversing back to the line under the direction of a crew member. I just like the picture which must have been taken from the much lamented barn. |
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When it comes to funny cars this one was the Daddy of them all.
My thanks to Nick Pettitt of Time Travel DVDs |
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All material on this site is copyright and |
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(First posted on 11 October 2016) |
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